Acclimatization
by Bookwrm17
Summary: Post-season three. Dean returns. Things aren't quite how he expected them to be.


**Author's note:** This was written from about 3:00 to about 6:00 in the morning. Who needs sleep anyway? It contains some vague spoilers for season four, but it also contradicts or simply ignores some other spoilers. So I guess it will eventually be considered AU.

Also, no character death this time. :P

**Acclimatization **

/ə,klaɪmətɪ'zeɪʃən/

_Noun: the act of becoming accustomed to a new climate or environment; adaptation_

Dean's just clawed his way out of his own grave to discover that four months have passed while he's been in the ground. He's lightheaded, he's disoriented and he's starving. But once the initial shock wears off and he's managed to scrounge up something to stave off his hunger, the first thing he tries to do is call Sam.

He gets a very polite recording informing him that the number he has dialed is no longer in service. So he calls Bobby, who hangs up as soon as he hears Dean's voice. Figures. Hadn't they filled him in on all the details of the Crocatta they'd hunted last spring?

So he walks until he reaches a highway, and then he hitchhikes to the nearest town, where he steals a car and drives all the way to South Dakota. Bobby doesn't give him the warmest of welcomes, but after stepping over several salt lines and drinking almost a gallon of holy water, Dean manages to convince him that he's really back.

It's more awkward than he expected.

Not that he'd given much thought to what to expect. He'd been more focused on figuring out what the hell was going on. He'd certainly never thought that Bobby would greet him with a tearful embrace or a poetic speech about how much he'd been missed, and he certainly didn't want him to. But he's pretty sure that, had he been asked how Bobby Singer would react to finding out that Dean Winchester was back from beyond the grave after spending four months in Hell, he would have imagined something more than the blank shock with which he is now met.

Later, he will realize that this should have been his first hint.

It turns out that Bobby hasn't spoken to Sam in nearly two months, and he doesn't know how to reach him either. But he helps Dean locate some other old contacts, and he puts the word out that Dean Winchester is back, for real. Hunters talk. If Sam is still hunting, maybe he'll hear it.

But in the mean time, Dean finds himself starting over. All of his possessions – his clothes, his weapons, the Impala – are somewhere else now, presumably with Sam, wherever he is. He has nothing but the clothes he was buried in, which he burns as soon as he can replace them, and his prized amulet, which he clings to as a tether to his old life, a reminder that he's still who he was and nothing has changed.

He acquires new clothes. Some are Bobby's old things, some are from Goodwill and some he actually buys. He gets new guns, new fake ID's, which he pays for with money from hustling pool. He even finds a "new" car, an old blue pickup truck which, while it will never compare to his baby, has a certain character of its own. He hunts, partially as a means to look for his brother and partially because it's just what he does.

The car is wrong, the details are different, and Sam's not there, but all in all it's the same life, and Dean can almost pretend he was never gone.

Almost.

It takes another two months, since Sam keeps himself pretty isolated, but eventually he hears about Dean's miraculous resurrection. Bobby leaves a message on Dean's new phone saying that Sam is at his house, and Dean decides that the nest of vampires he's tracking is just going to have to wait. He drives through the night and reaches Bobby's place the next morning, where his heart skips a beat at the sight of the Impala parked in the driveway. He walks in without knocking and finds Sam and Bobby in the midst of a heated argument. Bobby sounds frustrated, like they've been at it for a while, but Sam…

Sam is angry.

His anger cools, just a little, when he sets eyes on Dean, and if Bobby's reaction to seeing him again took him by surprise, it's nothing compared to Sam's. There's silence for a moment, and Dean's trying so hard to read his brother's emotions, but for the first time in his life he just can't.

"You're alive," Sam says, and Dean merely nods. "And you're okay," he continues. It isn't a question.

"Yeah, Sammy…" Dean begins, but at the sound of his nickname Sam's anger returns and he storms out of the house. Dean hears the Impala roar to life, and somewhere in the back of his mind he is appreciative of the fact that it sounds like it's been well taken care of as he listens to his brother drive off in his car.

"He'll be back," Bobby reassures. "He left his duffle here." Sure enough, Dean can see it on the floor by the couch, and it's the same bag Sam's always used, only it isn't, because before it was always one of two and now it's on its own.

"But he doesn't want to see me," Dean states. "He's angry at me."

Bobby insists that he'll come around, but Dean is plagued by doubts the rest of the day. When Sam finally returns, it's just starting to get dark, and Dean is giving the truck a quick tune-up. As he wipes his hands on a rag and watches his brother step out of the Impala, he can't help but think of how odd it is to see him in the driver's seat. Upon closer inspection, he realizes that that's not the only change. Sam's hair is a little shorter, and he's put on a little more muscle. He looks older, not drastically so, but the six months since they last saw each other have made themselves known. But he's still Sam. And he's still angry.

Dean's getting a little mad himself, because he just doesn't get it. He figured it was a shock to find out that he was alive again, and seeing him earlier was a bit much to handle. But now Sam's had all day to get used to the idea, so why does he still look like he'd rather Dean hadn't come back?

It's Sam who breaks the silence first. "I'm not doing this again," he says. Dean still doesn't get it, and tells him so, perhaps not in the nicest way possible. Sam elaborates for him.

"When we hunted that trickster, the second time, I watched you die over and over again." Dean vaguely recalls the incident, but Sam's never talked about it until now. "The last time," Sam continues, "you were dead for six months. I spent six months hunting the trickster alone to make him bring you back. Six months not coping. Turns out that was the whole point. He was trying to teach me a lesson about letting go."

There is silence again as Sam's words sink in. "That's sick," Dean finally manages to say. Once again Sam's response catches him off guard.

"It worked," he says. "You died for real this time, Dean, and I buried you. I let go. And now you're back, and I'm glad, I really am, but I'm sorry. I'm not doing that again."

With those words, Sam turns and goes inside, leaving Dean alone with the sunset and the cars. Absently, he wanders over to the Impala and climbs in the driver's side. The seat and the mirrors have all been adjusted to Sam's height, and the passenger's seat is covered with maps and notes from Sam's latest hunt. The steering wheel feels oddly foreign in Dean's hands, and his brother's meaning begins to register.

Things are different now. Sam's spent the last six months hunting alone, four of which Dean spent underground. He's moved on, laid his brother to rest, and forged a new life for himself. Dean can cling to the past all he wants, but it won't change the fact that Sam is living in the present. And at present, Dean's role in his life is done.


End file.
